Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Goodbye Istanbul

We left Istanbul at 2am, we were all tired and anxious to arrive in Jordan. At about half the distance of our journey we went through a snow storm and it was so intense that we thought we will crash and die, and we started to pray. For sure God didn't lead us there to let us die up in the air.
We landed safely in Amman after all the turbulences, we all felt sick but we were with our feet on the ground, thanking God for keeping us safe.
A local person took us with a car from the airport and we drove for one hour and a half to Mafraq, the city where we stayed for a week.
Jordan is a beautiful, though scanty country. There are villages strewn all over the hills, beduin and refugee tents and olive orchards.
Syrian men take their families to the town of Mafraq or into the camp, leave them to their own fate and cross the border again in order to fight in their home country.
We helped the local church to distribute mattresses, pillows, blankets, stoves with gas, food and whatever those people needed, and not only this, we wanted to share God's love and to be a light for them, we wanted to bring comfort and to encourage them that there is hope, there is a hope that lasts forever- that hope we find in God alone.
Put into groups of three or four we daily visited the Syrians. Few of them live in tents in the town. Most have found shelter in shacks, cellars or shabby rooftop rooms the Jordanians give them. Unfortunately, they take horrendous prices for that as the guests have no options...
There are 60.000 Jordanians and now another 60.000 Syrians in the town or more..
Some Syrians are doing well enough to afford a furbished room, most of them are not. Nobody has a work permission, thousands of refugees come to church for help and to be registered every day.
Their lives are completely out of what comfort or familiar or safety means. Their stories sound like those from some horror movies. People are hurt, grieving, with emotional traumas- especially the children- without a hope of a future or a way to rebuild their lives.
Visiting them and bringing them food also opened a door for us to share about God's love and about that hope we find only in Jesus. It was surprinsigly to see how they didn't reject us or the message we brought, and we prayed together in the name of Jesus.
God is using this little church for two years now when no one heard about it before. God brings hope, life, healing, and help for these people in need. And i know it's only the beginning...

Jordanian desert and the UN refugees's camp

Beni and Elisa helping at the distribution of mattresses and pillows

in the church

Magued, one of the volunteers who helped at bringing food for the refugees